Meet Isabella Lojewski: Unbreakable Female Athlete's first sponsored athlete!
I was born in Brooklyn, New York, and I have lived in Orlando, Florida, for the past 15 years. Just now, in the fall, I moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, to attend Tulane University. My parents were born and raised in Poland; they immigrated to the United States at 18 years old and have been here since! Because both of them were born in Poland, I obtained my dual citizenship this way. I am super proud of my parents and how far they have come in this country, considering they did not speak English when immigrating here! I was an Artistic Swimmer up until I was 11 years old, but because of team issues, my mom suggested that I should quit and become a swimmer. So that is how I got into the sport!
After two short years of swimming, I got my first junior national cut and have been improving and thriving since! I am currently on my club team, Blue Dolfins out of Winter Park, Florida, the Polish National Team, and Tulane's Swimming and Diving team! I am so grateful that all my teams provided so many different and excellent opportunities. So many people don't see swimming as a challenging sport. However, I believe we work extremely hard, and our training schedules are super intense. To go more in-depth about my schedule, we train about 22 hours a week. We have nine swim sessions; some start as early as 4:45 am, three weights, and three dryland/cardio sessions. You may think swimmers have no social life because of this crazy schedule, but once you find the balance and become organized, it gets super easy. Having fun at practices, making friends or your team, and creating great relationships with your coaches are all fantastic components that I use to enjoy swimming. I went to my first Polish Junior Nationals in December 2020 because of how bad COVID was still in the U.S. a lot of our national meets were not open, and we could not swim at them. I had terrific swims, especially after such a rough season since we weren't competing almost all year, and I was named onto the Polish Junior National Team. I heard that there was an opportunity for me to swim at the Polish Olympic Trials in April of 2021 and qualify for European Juniors in Rome. I swam at the meet, and I qualified! Later in May, I flew back to Poland to spend the rest of my summer training with the national team and preparing for European Juniors. I was a finalist at the super exciting meet, the experience was unique, and the facility was absolutely breathtaking. I still go and swim in Poland, and I am now on the senior national team. Sports-wise, my main goal is to compete for Poland more internationally and represent Tulane at the conference meet and hopefully NCAA.
Regarding my career, I am an exercise science and psychology major, meaning I want to be a sports psychologist when I am older and work with high-level sports teams, professional or collegiate. Being a female athlete means a lot to me; I'm so proud to be one. It means being physically fit to play your sport, training hard, trying hard, and wanting to develop with your team and coaches. While it is exciting and a privilege, there are challenges. We are under tremendous pressure to succeed and compete at the highest levels, including pressure to act as our coaches and peers expect us to. This requires dedication, purpose, values, morals, and willingness to train hard. I think the biggest thing is that we females have a lot to prove, and we have to prove that we can play at all levels, regarding our gender.
When asked about how Lokewski feels about being UFA's first sponsored athlete she exclaimed, "It is such an honor to work with UFA and help their brand grow and play a massive part in it. But, I am most excited to see all the lovely ladies grow and see how everyone proves to the world that girls rule."